1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a method and an apparatus for the separation and purification of isotopes in an electrolytic medium using electrochemical methods alone or combined with other separation methods like centrifugal, electromagnetic, eddy currents, membrane diffusion, etc. It is related to the enrichment of U235 to get any enrichment required to build nuclear weapons or fuel for power nuclear reactors. Also, it is related to the separation of isotopes for medical and industrial applications.
2. Prior Art
Isotope separation was done for many years with different methods. One of the used methods was electromagnetic separation by applying electric and magnetic fields in vacuum. This method was modified to perform the separation in a plasma (U.S. Pat. No. 6,726,884). Gaseous separation of Uranium isotopes was performed on a large scale using special expensive diffusion membranes. Many U.S. patents for chromatographic separation were issued, which require high pressure and consume large amounts of energy. One of the widely used methods is the centrifugal separation. This method requires special expensive centrifugal units and has low yield, and must rotate at extremely high speeds. The prior art methods have many disadvantages, some of these are: require large costly equipment, have high energy requirements, need special costly materials with very limited availability, have low yield and low separation factors, operate at high pressure or at high vacuum, and are complicated and difficult to operate.
3. Objects and Advantages
Accordingly, several objects and advantages of my invention are:    (a) to provide a simple and inexpensive method and device to separate different isotopes of elements efficiently;    (b) to provide a method and device to separate different isotopes which will have the advantages as mentioned in (a), and could be constructed from readily available materials and use readily available technologies;    (c) to provide a method and device to separate different isotopes which will have the advantages as mentioned in (a) or (b), and require low energy consumption;    (d) to provide a method and device to separate different isotopes which will have the advantages as mentioned in any or all of (a) to (c), and does not require high pressure or high vacuum;    (e) to provide a method and device to separate different isotopes which will have the advantages as mentioned in any or all of (a) to (d), and does not require high strength mechanical structures to support excessive stresses, due to high speeds of rotation, high pressure, or vacuum;    (f) to provide a method and device to separate different isotopes which will have the advantages as mentioned in any or all of (a) to (e), and could have separation capabilities in more than one direction;    (g) to provide a method and device to separate different isotopes which will have the advantages as mentioned in any or all of (a) to (f), and could purify the separated isotopes from impurities;
Further objects and advantages are to provide a method and device to separate more than one isotope in the same apparatus at the same time. Still further objects and advantages will become apparent from a consideration of the ensuing description and drawings.